


sweaters

by alex (inventedlove)



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Fluff, M/M, fluff fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29424009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inventedlove/pseuds/alex
Summary: cute christmas fluff fic written in neil's pov hehe
Relationships: Anderperry - Relationship, Todd Anderson/Neil Perry
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	sweaters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [edie (@toddxnderson)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=edie+%28%40toddxnderson%29).



> happy valentines edie!! i hope you enjoy the fic !

It was early November when Neil decided on what to give Todd for their first christmas together. He’d contemplated on multiple gifts and none of them felt quite right until he realised that Todd always liked the idea of handmade gifts, so then he decided that for one month and a half, he would try to knit a sweater for both Todd and him. This felt quite a challenge at first, he didn’t quite understand the ways of how to knit, for this reason he made the decision to befriend his mum once and for all and ask her how to even begin to knit. On the first day back home for thanksgiving, he asked her. 

“You want to learn how to knit?” His mother looked concerned. “Dear what’s gotten into you? You were only interested in studying and now you want to learn how to knit?” 

He nodded. He felt confused at first by his mothers response but he later realised that she was right. He’d only been interested in studying before and it was only now when he finally did something he actually liked, and for himself —though not entirely. 

His mother gave him a dissatisfied look, she’d expected a much more response than a simple nod, simply waiting for him to explain what had changed in him but she didn’t say anything and in response to Neil nodding she left the room and went to the closet to grab the knitting kit. After a few minutes, she returned back to the room with multiple coloured yarns and two pairs of needles. 

“Well? What colour do you want?” 

He swore to himself that he would knit Todd’s first but he considered his current skills and he didn’t want Todd’s sweater to look ugly, at least uglier than his so he began with his. 

“Yellow.” He said with certainty. 

Mrs. Perry tried to teach him everything he needed to know, especially the most important of them all, how to cast on. Although he’d been called a fast learner, knitting was something he definitely was not of. He would think that he’d memorised each step correctly and when he does do it, it just ended up wrong. Mrs. Perry however wasn’t disappointed by this, she liked this time with him and this was one of the few times she’d been alone with him teaching him how to do something. She was reminded of the olden days when he would always go up to her and ask her how to do the simplest things such as cooking, making his bed or even doing the laundry. She missed him dearly. Her heart ached each time she had to send him away to boarding school. To Welton. And when he did come home, you’d find her to be the happiest. 

It did take awhile for him to finally get the hang of it. It’d been at the very end of Thanksgiving when he finally finished his very first sweater with his mother. He felt proud of himself and so did Mrs. Perry. Before he left home, Mrs. Perry had written him a list of instructions on how to do certain things in case he’d forgotten anything during his time away from home. She gave him a hug, her heart ached yet again, and finally gave him the instructions. 

“Call me when you need help okay?” 

He smiled at her, holding the instructions on his hand. He couldn’t wait to come back to Welton and start knitting Todd’s sweater though he knew he had to do it mostly in secret. Still he didn’t mind. He missed everyone especially Todd and a week without contact felt like eternity to him. So he sat shotgun and started to feel uneasy whilst sitting beside his father. 

“What did she give you Neil?” Mr. Perry demanded to know. 

He began spiraling and he couldn’t understand why his father suddenly wanted to know. He’d never thought of ever having a conversation with him along the way and it happened. He tried to find the perfect words that’d be acceptable for his father. 

“Instructions for a school project sir.” He replied. 

For Pete’s sake, he thought to himself. He’d told an unnecessary lie. 

“You seem to be working hard then. I hope you’ll continue this way Neil. Until you graduate.” He paused and looked at the rear view mirror. “I’ve had several conversations with your teachers over the phone, especially your new English teacher. Keating was it? Anyway, as long as you continue this way I’m sure you’ll be able to go to any school you want.” 

“I will sir.” 

He hated it. Whatever his father had said. He was doing well yes but mentally? Oh god no. He’d been trying, achieving A’s, trying to just please his father. Nothing that he’d ever done was for him and suddenly he was reminded of his time with his mother. The comfort she’d given him during the times when she was teaching him. He looked at the instructions she’d given him and felt a lump in his throat beginning to hurt him. His vision blurring. He held his tears back as well as he could, not letting his father see that he was capable of being vulnerable. Never, never will he ever let Mr. Perry see him like this. 

In what felt like forever, they’d finally arrived in Welton. The first face he saw was of course Charlie who ran up to the car to greet him. He got out of the car. 

“Now you take care boy.” Mr. Perry said.

“Yes sir.” 

“Speak louder boy.” 

“Yes sir.” He said louder. 

After Mr. Perry had left, Charlie immediately went to hug him. Next would have been Meeks, Pitts and then Cameron. But Todd, Todd was nowhere to be found. He tried to look everywhere, in the library, dining room, classrooms even and lastly their dorm room but he wasn’t at any of them. He began to panic. The lack of communication had been the reason for this and if only they both promised each other to even call during Thanksgiving, he wouldn’t be so worried. He blamed himself for this over and over again. Finally he asked Charlie. 

“Oh. Todd? His parents had called mine and said he’d be coming back tomorrow. Did you perhaps- did you miss him Neil?” He teased. 

He felt relief. There was no need to feel the way he had. Of course there would’ve been no reason to afterall why would Todd disappear all of the sudden. If Todd had suddenly left school and moved to another —which would’ve been impossible because Jeff graduated at Welton— he surely would’ve written to Neil or at least phoned him. 

“Go away Charlie.”   
It was around the blue hour when he’d arrived at Welton. The students were given the day off that day so no one was expected, though not really, to do their schoolworks. He’d already done his way before he had gone home so this wasn’t a problem for him. As he was unpacking, he saw the sweater he’d made and thought about starting Todd’s. He had nothing to do anyway and since dinner wasn’t going to start for about another hour he had a lot of time to get started and so he did. It wasn’t much of a progress but it was a lot especially for a beginner like him though he did miss his mother sometimes, reassuring him that he was fine even after he’d done the wrong thing twice already. He really did like his mother, more than his father. Suddenly, for the first time, he wished he were home. Home where there is warmth and comfort beside his mother. In a short period of time they were able to bond and now he has something that he holds dear at home. 

He’d woken up to Todd tucking him in his blankets. 

“Toddy?” 

“I’m home Neil.” He last heard before he fell back asleep. He hadn’t realised then that it was actually Todd and not something he’d dreamt of. It was only later when he saw Todd sitting on his desk doing his schoolwork that he realised Todd was back. His Todd, his Toddy. He was back. 

“What took you so long?” He sprung up from his bed. 

He was happy. He was in seventh heaven. 

“Good morning to you too,” he laughed. “I just thought to spend one more day with them you know. I missed them a lot. Though I missed you more.”

Welton felt perfect now. Complete. He felt safe again. 

Toddy, Toddy is my found home, he thought. 

They spent their times at Welton like they’ve done before except this time you’d find him apart from the rest, trying to finish the sweater. The rest of the group did wonder though what Neil was always up to. He found the perfect place no one would even think to look for him at and it was at Keating’s office. He’d told him what he was trying to do and Mr. Keating, like the nice person he is, thought that it would be a good idea as long as he kept up with his work. And he did, he kept his promise so he was able to continue staying at the office until a week before christmas when he had finally finished the sweater. It was the colour that Todd liked the most which was green and although there were a few times when he had felt helpless, he still kept trying. He’d thought of phoning his mother but it would always be around dinner time when he only had free time that he didn’t even want to bother her with her house chores. Sometimes though he would want to call her just to know that she was still there on the other line, alive and well. But god forbid him to ever do anything about it. 

During the time when he was still working his way through finishing the sweater, Todd would often ask him why he was always away and he would come up with the most boring reason and it would have been him doing intensive studying. Todd would ask why he’d rather do it alone and he would just shrug. The shrugging made Todd a little bit worried for him. Todd didn’t know what was going on and whether or not Neil was even telling the truth. Charlie tried to do the same thing but got the same answer. It was becoming such a bother to lie about it so when he did finish he told the boys that he was done with being alone. Two weeks of doing nothing but knitting, he felt tired and sick of it. He couldn’t even look at the needles and yarns he’d brought with him without feeling like throwing them away. 

The boys decided to give their gifts to each other on christmas eve because “why the hell not!” Charlie often said. Charlie thought that it was somewhat empowering to choose when to not do something so exchanging the gifts on christmas eve had become a decision everyone agreed on (though it took Cameron a little bit more convincing). And so they did. At exactly 12.00 they started to change gifts. 

“Todd.” He came up to Todd. 

“Merry Christmas Neil.” 

“Merry Christmas Toddy.” 

He gave the green sweater he worked so hard on knitting to Todd and Todd looked up to him with a face that read: “is this what you’ve been working on?” 

“I was working on this instead of studying.” He confirmed. 

“Neil you’re an idiot.” Todd put his arms around, “I love it.”  
He showed him that he too knitted one for himself so that they’d have matching sweaters that everyone could be jealous about. He felt so happy when he saw Todd wear it for the first time. “My work, he looks so good with it,” he thought. 

“What are you both wearing,” Cameron laughed. 

“Cameron, it looks cute don’t you think?” Charlie corrected him. 

“Well if you say so,” Cameron replied, raising his eyebrows in disagreement. 

Neil didn’t mind Cameron’s remarks though because all he really did care about was what Todd thought of the sweater he worked so hard on that he had to spend two weeks alone doing it, away from the boys especially Todd. He couldn’t stop staring at him, he just couldn’t get enough of how adorable Todd had looked in his (maybe) ugly sweater but cute nevertheless. This was enough for him. 

Charlie had put a mistletoe right at the entrance of the cave. It was perfect because it was right above them and Neil being Neil, he felt like he needed to kiss Todd there to make things extra romantic. So he whispered to Todd, 

“Can I kiss you?” 

Todd kissed him in reply. At the same time he felt betrayed, he wanted to be the one who would kiss Todd instead of the other way around but both scenarios would still end up in them kissing especially underneath the mistletoe. 

“How romantic.” Todd said. 

“Well I do try to be.” He paused, “guess what Toddy.”

“What?” 

“I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> twitter is @inventedlove


End file.
